Opposing opening batsmen score centuries at Lancaster Park

Press, 3 December 1979, Page 21

Opposing opening batsmen score centuries at Lancaster Park

The Lancaster Park wicket block promises to provide a fine platform for batsmen to display their skills during the coming first-class cricket season.

Certainly, the pitch on the] E oval was appreciated by the 1 Lancaster Park and Riccar- i ton batsmen when the fifth 1 round of the Canterbury' < first grade championship 1 began on Saturday. Those ! who finished the day with a particular fondness for the 1 pitch were the opposing , openers, Tony Collins and t Lindsay Thorn. f Collins and Thorn had ! matching individual scores Is of 115 in their first innings, I and Collins returned in the j. late afternoon to be unbeat- s en on 26 at stumps as Lan- £ caster Park took a slender/ lead with all wickets intact. 1I In doing so, Collins £ extended his career aggre- e gate past 5000 runs, and inp characteristic fashion, kept ® anace with the clock and hit; five sixes. For Thorn, sol long a middle-order batsman!a whose responsibility it was 11 to seek quick runs for his if side, there was the special' o pleasure of scoring his firstly sen ; or century. i g There was some usefull» scoring at Elmwood Park,!” too. as Old Collegians and St Albans shared the day’s I. honours. Rod Fulton made aj welcome return to the Old Collegians team and he was one of three pla'ers to ex-! ceed 50. the others being John Phillips and Geoff Smith. High School Old Boys and Burnside-West University are also evenly poised in their match, but it was a far more grim struggle for runs' st Hagley 1. Only when Bryan Ritchie, continued his; purple patch, and Chris! Marks came together in a, seventh-wicket partnership i for Old Boys were the bowl-j ers without firm control. I However, the Sydenham i medium-pacers. Nicky Dierck and lan Wilson, reaped! the most significant rewards. They shared nine wickets as; the East first innings crum-j bled for just 69 runs. Only a! remarkable improvement will enable East to save the match next Saturday. Apart from Dierck, Bevan| Congdon, (Lancaster Park).' was the onlv bowler to claim five wickets. However Wilson, with four wickets I for nine runs from 80 deliv-j eries. had the most impres-i sive figures. Scores. — East-Shirley 69 and 38/2 met Sydenham 123/61 declared. ! Old Collegians 194/7 declared met St Albans 122/4. . . a ’ Old Boys 161/7 declared met Burnside-West 88/4. IJ Lancaster Park declared and 46/0 met Ric- i carton 229/7 declared. 1 SLOW PITCH, SLOW PACE t The pitch and the pace of the came at Haglev Oval were both Mow as High School Old Boys I , battled their way to a position, from which Cran Bull could close the innings, and Burnside-!t West, in turn, struggled to re- j duce the deficit atter the tea c adjournment. . [I Neither of these formidable v championship contenders canp look forward to markedly increasing their competition points,* when the match resumes. It | 1 teems that more declarations: will be necessary to produce a < positive result. t The pattern was established r berore lunch when Barry Had- i lee and David Leggat had great ♦ difficulty against the accuracy of *] Tonv Farrant. Ironically, it was Farrant’s brother, David, who r made the initial inroads into the > old Bo's inning-, removing Had- I lee and John Calder in quick; succession. ’ However. Tony Farrant was to 1 have some rev.ard for his ten-; ai ft in forcing shots — if I mostly defensive ones — fromjt his opponents. Leggat. after bat♦*ng soundly, played across the t line, and it was left to Bull to’i

soldier on in the midst of a middle-order slump. Bull showed admirable tech-, nique and determination, and his innings bodes well for the rigorous representative pro- I gramme ahead of him. but when; he fell victim to Tony Farrant’ Old Boys were shakily placed at I 100 for seven. Once again Bryan Ritchie was' the man for the hour, and he; had an able lieutenant in Chris) Marks. In a partnership that was I highlighted by Ritchie's confi-' dent driving, they added 61 runs: in a shade better than even; time. Compared with the over- i all run rate it was headv stuff. 1 Tony Farrant was not thel only economic bowler. Chris; Kirk, in a long spell that was i strangely studded bv no-balls, was even more stingy, and David Farrant also made sure that runs had to be earned by hard labour. John Mitchel! and Justin Boyle made a useful start to the Burnside-West innings but a slump followed as Davie Hadlee! and Brent Smail gained two wickets each for little cost. EVENLY BALANCED Neither side was able to gain and hold a significant advantage in the match at Elmwood Park. The pitch was in splendid order, the outfield fast and, for most of the day, the batsmen were tn control. If the scores were lower than these conditions suggest they should have been, it was because the leading batsmen orchestrated their own dismissals. St Albans started with two

startlinglv early successes which brought John Phillips to the | crease. As he has shown so often i in the past Phillips read the I position clearly and produced the correct solution. He was extremely sound while he worked to restore the balance of the game but. when he was joined by Rod Fulton, he produced some powerful drives and pulls. Fulton, in his first game of the season, played beautifully. From the start he .muddled the ball with confidence. using his feet quickly to get into position and playing with great freedom. His timing was so sweet that many of his 10 boundaries were effortless shots. Happily, he seemed untroubled by his shoulder injury’. The partnership for the fourth wicket nrovided splendid entertainment and 95 runs in only 76 minutes, batsmen were dismissed wnjie trying to increase scoring rate even further. There is, perhaps, something to criticise in a points svstem that discourages batsmen from buildin? a hi? innings once they have bponm#* established. Thr-op nuirk wickets stopped the Hjd Collegians advance and. bv capturing *he seventh wicket ; jitri before the declaration. St. Albans v-nnld have been pleased [to ?a ir » three bowling points. Heoff was in sparkling form be opened +he innings With Rod Moore playing

more fluently than for some time, Smith gave a very brisk start which was accelerated when he was joined by his namesake, Les.

The Canterbury opener .seemed ; to play with an assurance which grew the longer he stayed at ■ the wicket. It was, perhaps, sigi nificant that the bowlers kept i the ball short and outside the ; off stump, doubtless encouraging I the cut that has brought his I downfall so often. In this innings Smith proved that he can cut successfully; in fact, it became one of his most profitable shots.

After some excellent calling ; and running between the j wickets, it was sad to see Smith run himself out needlessly. This a flurr V of activity in the ol Albans dressing room as two more wickets fell just before stumps to bring the game back to balance. EAST IN TROUBLE Sydenham is in a commanding POS'tion against the home team, tast Christchurch-Shirley. at Burwood Park, and East will have to show much more determination to save the game Sent into bat by the Sydenham captain, John barter. East was soon in trouble against an accurate medium-paced attack. A fifth wicket partnership of 23 bv the experienced pair of Carl Dickel and John Grocott, was the only bright spot in the innings of 69.

Nickv Dierck and lan Wilson both moved the ball in the air ana off the seam, and most of the East batsmen seemed bemused. Ashley Hart again kept wickets well and made an excellent leg-side stumping off Wilson.

The East bowling did not demand any great respect and Bill Thomson made a welcome return to form. Warren Bell scored quickly. 24 in 31 minutes, and barter was able to declare shortly after tea with a lead of ot.

East’s batting in the second innings was slow. In one period seven maidens were bowled in succession and 30 minutes passed with no run being scored. At the end of the day, with eight wickets in hand. East still needed 16 runs to wipe out the deficit.

PROLIFIC SCORING Short boundaries, a fast outfield. and a pitch full of runs produced some entertaining cricket at bancaster Park Oval. David Dempsey won the toss and elected to bat. The first wicket fell after 59 minutes with the total at 86. Dempsey, although not timing the ball well, contributed a useful 34 runs.

I Tony Collins then continued in his usual entertaining manner, hitting the ball forcefully on both sides of the pitch. He raced to his century in even j time with two huge sixes off the Canterbury leg-spinnner, David Stead. Stead was the most successful bowler fop Riccarton, claiming two of the three wickets to fall, before the Lancaster Park declaration at lunch. Riccarton started with a very sound opening partnership by Wayne Spanier and Lindsay Thorn. Spanjer made a well compiled 38 runs before becoming the first of Bevan Congdon’s five victims. Thorn, after a slow start, timed his shots well, especially on the off-side, and reached his maiden senior century in 160 min. > Geoff Miller flayed the weak- ! ened Park attack with a power- ■ ful 35 in even time, before the ' second declaration of the match. At the close of play Lancaster Park was 15 runs in the lead i with all wickets intact, the Ric--1 carton bowlers again receiving ' attention from the diminutive i figure of Collins and his very i big bat.